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I moved to McKees Hill SW of Lismore by 4.20 and watched the very impressive action head straight at me (storm heading north). Rotation of the base was quite apparent. CGs were quite frequent from the wall cloud and either side of it.

Storm kicked off just south of Nymboida - will add a radar sequence soon. Winds were fresh N-NE the whole time I was watching this storm. Hail 'large enought to break windows' was reported in Grafton, and hail the size of golf balls at Lawrence too.

Friday 15th December was a very oppressive day in the Northern Rivers. DPs mainly around the 20 degree mark, temp 30-32, light winds and fairly cloudy with patches of thick altocumulus with convective tops. Some scattered showers resulted during the day keeping the air very sticky. Conditions were very unstable with CAPE over 2000 and LIs about -6. Shear profile was suitable for strong organised storms including supercells.

By late afternoon some thunderstorms had developed between about Armidale and Inverell where skies were sunnier. The BoM didn't issue the first thunderstorm warning until 4.05pm but it included the whole of NE NSW.

My daughter Katrina was home from school so I checked to see if she was interested in her first storm chase - sure enough - yes ! Dave Ellem came over and we left about 5pm as some cells on the Northern Tablelands looked like they would track towards the Casino area by 7pm-ish.

By the time we got out there those storms had collapsed to not much and the only activity of any strength was south near Woolgoolga, and north into SE QLD.

We took the usual Maccas break then headed to the clear area just NW of Casino.

Already fresh convection had initiated in the Upper Clarence Valley to our west. Contrast was at first poor, but gradually improved as the sun got lower and thunderstorm activity increased. We could hear thunder and soon spotted lightning from the dominating storm now moving onto the Richmond Range.

Another cell south of this one produced a very interesting LP type base on and off with regular CGs, though its updraft was obscured or looked weak when we were able to glimpse it.

Beck Armytage met us about 6.30pm

The main event was certainly unfolding to the west though, this continue to grow - shooting out pulsating CGs from under and near multiple updraft areas - and also the anvil region which was spreading off to the northeast.

The southern flank of this complex developed the more interesting features - about the same time as much of the core took on the green tinge. Lightning was now getting quite close but still a safe distance.

A massive multi-tiered gustfront feature formed and started to spread ESE. The storm was huge! It spread right across from SW to NW and was now rapidly advancing eastwards - not a common movement direction in this part of the world for severe storms. The sunset colours to the storm's SW topped off the scene.

We made a move a minute or two after the first drops of rain hit. Just as well - powerful pulsating CGs started to hit just ahead of us towards the east !

We drove back into Casino and then took off down the Coraki road when heads generally SE. The storm structure was quite incredible by the time we got to Casino - massive boiling gust front features with constant pulsating CGs - which had now spread well eastwards on along the track the storm would take to Lismore and Ballina. However, the best storm features were definitely on its SE flank.

Rain was soon to envelope the whole area - this storm was very very large. The constant barrage of CGs was phenomenal, hitting all around us, off into the distance - everywhere. The drive from just NW of Coraki and back home - which took about 45 minutes was now torrential rain with blinding lightning. Katrina was filming the show as we tried to escape it.

The CGS were hitting right around home when we got there. Torrential rain was falling so it was difficult to capture any lightning but it didn't matter after watching the whole storm develop and intensify into the beast !!! What an afternoon / evening - and Katrina's first storm chase too - needless to say she was rather impressed !

Hi David - yes - quite apparent at that stage to the eye. Have not had time to review the video but I suspect timelapse will be quite impressive.

Have since had a look at the radar from yesterday afternoon and the smaller storm you see on the left in photo #09 was moving NE while the main one was heading just slightly S of east. They collided right on Casino. Energex tracker went ballistic at this point with 800+ strikes per 5 mins from this storm complex !

Julie

The 16th was quite an afternoon up here in the Wide Bay.Arrived home to a ‘very stormy’ feel in the air & thankfully the storms came to Biggenden as being slightly incapacitated I was unable to chase any further than my verandah.

Copped quite an outflow here from a cell heading towards Childers, some small hail (small marble to pingpong ball size reported), severe wind & rain. Quite a few small branches & major leaf/twig flying about here from the outflow. The last wind reading recorded here was 80km/hr before a large airborne branch took out the pole. Fortunately we didn’t cop the full brunt of that storm as it headed towards Childers & only 27mm made it into the gauge; we were without power for just over 4 hours. Coringa, N of me received 60mm. Temp dropped from 37.1° to 26.2° in 10 minutes.The cell moved onto Childers area where Horton/Redridge just east of Childers copped the full brunt. Sheds with walls blown out, roofs torn off & windows smashed. Headed east onto Goodwood road towards the industrial area & found 2 sheds with their doors blown out & some iron blown up to 100m into cane fields. The pine furniture manufacturing shed owner parked a small pantec in front of the main doors trying to stop some of the rain blowing in. Interesting to see several of the street light poles bent in this area, one business owner there stated “they weren’t like that yesterday morning!”

We proceeded further down the road about 150 metres to Old Doolbi Station house where they’d lost half of their roof, some shed damage & major tree damage. A horse in a small paddock beside the old house was still very flighty & had suffered some small injuries from flying debris. Half of the Childers/Isis Golf course backs onto Old Doolbi Station House & I could see major tree damage in a path approx 150m wide heading NE. The damage path crossed Goodwood Rd towards the golf clubhouse & in the direction of Horton.

The Golf Course & Horton seemed to sustain the worst of large tree damage & a couple of houses losing their roofs & a several sheds also blown apart. A new cyclone rated shed housing 2 new Massey Ferguson tractors was blown apart, funny to see no damage to the old original shed right beside it.

A house on Goodwood Rd at Redridge had all the windows blown out on the windward side. We headed down Redridge Rd & found 2 houses with their roofs gone, all the windows broken on the windward side & major hail damage to young cane plants.

Julie

I think the farming community there could have done without the hail damage, it's enormous! One farmer has 90h of lychee trees & 65h of mango trees that are bare of bark & limbs. They'd only just started to pick the fruit from them for the Christmas sales. It was an eerie sight to see It'll take him about 4 years to recover from this storm. I'd like to have posted some photos of his damage but he declined me permission to take any photos. He averaged the hail size to be between "large chook egg & duck egg size pounded down for a good 10 minutes then the rain followed".You can see the marks on the trunk of this tree from the hail that hit Horton, where they averaged it to be about 2-3cm. They said they probably could have coped with that size hail no problem but it was the amount of it that fell & with the winds behind it that did the damage to crops. I've never seen so many dead birds from a storm before